Task Matter - why? And what for?

There are already countless tools using AI to create plans, manage todo lists and calendars. Think Notion, Todoist, Linear, Trello. You can also use ChatGPT and Claude to integrate with your existing tools. One could also use OpenClaw to track and perform tasks, and answer any question. All these tools are not clones, and take very different approaches to getting things done. Notion is probably the closest to what I want. But Notion is both overwhelming and underwhelming. Helping me reach goals is one of its many use cases. Notion is a little bit like a physical notebook one would lovingly organise and decorate. Templates help, but they are not contextualised for a given type of goal or task, they take over your whole account workflow.

What I wanted is an app whose sole focus is to help me get where I want to be, while having access to that AI knowledge. I also need to be able to manually interact with the plan. It’s my plan after all. One way to describe what I want is a ChatGPT focused on my goals and tasks. ChatGPT or Claude do integrate with project management apps, but really, the friction of integration is significant.

AI chats have been incredible to help me tackle difficult goals. They just need that bit of structure to help with keeping the focus to actually reach these goals. In Task Matter, I settled on a structure of Goals that contain Tasks that contain Action Items. To organise my week and days, I, or AI, bring the most relevant tasks into a focus area. But AI is there at every scope: global focus, each goal, each task, each action item. One AI feed for each scope. And that feed is accessible whenever you click on the object. The feed is a lot more than an AI chat, but that deserves its own post. I am very very pleased with the feed. Lots of eureka moments to get there and make it just work.

That went a bit further into the “how” than I first meant. I can’t wait to write more about it. Coming back to what this is all for, Task Matter’s ultimate objective is to help users tackle any goal, using best available knowledge for each one. As a realistic first milestone, Task Matter is focusing on mid- to long-term personal goals. For me, it has been building Task Matter itself, company creation, GTM, personal admin, DIY, running, traveling and gardening. It is all over the place, but it is simply what is filling my life at the moment.

While creating a draft for the landing page, I’ve realised I needed to spell out the answer to “why” and “what for”, which I’ve answered above, with some “how” leaking in. I have no idea yet how I will summarise the above in a couple of sentences. Though I have some cheesy product taglines ideas already. Let me know what you think:

• My favourite one, “AI with purpose, your purpose”
• One stolen from the tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou, “Don’t think you can’t, wonder how you will”
• Variation on that theme, “Assume you will, discover how.”

If you have ideas to suggest in the comments, be warned I won’t pay you if I choose them! Though I might give you attribution :)